Book cover for 'Fat Bodies in Early Modern Europe' edited by Holly Fletcher, Christine Ott and Jill Burke, showing the title and editors' names on a maroon, floral background.

It seems that books are a bit like buses...

'Fat Bodies in Early Modern Europe' edited by Christine Ott, @jillburke.bsky.social and me is out now!! #EarlyModern

Also including contributions from Alex Pyrges, Andrea Baldan, @scarlettgauthor.bsky.social, Pablo García Piñar, and Roberta Colbertaldo

Archaeologists stunned to find copy of Homer’s Iliad inside ancient Egyptian mummy Papyrus fragment discovered inside mummy buried in Roman-era tomb around 1,600 years ago

"Archaeologists stunned to find copy of Homer’s Iliad inside ancient Egyptian mummy"
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

That’s just awful. Nothing less. Good grief

White text on a magenta background with information about a publication prize. Headline text at the top reads, "Apply for the William L. Mitchell Prize by 15 August." Paragraph text at the bottom reads, "The Prize serves as an encouragement to scholars engaged in bibliographical scholarship on 18th-century periodicals published in English or in any language (including Indigenous languages) within the British Isles, its colonies, former colonies, and occupied territories."

Dark pink text on a light pink background outlining submission requirements for the Mitchell Prize and instructions to use the link in the bio for more information.

We are now accepting submissions for the Mitchell Prize for research on British serials! 📖🏆

Awarded every three years, the prize brings a cash award 💵of $1,000 and a year’s membership in the Society.

Link to learn more and submit in bio 🔗

Small yellow and black variegated bird feather in the gutter of a book.

A feather in the opening of an incunable. Would be very interested to know what bird this came from.

Some abject book handling here from Isidore. Good grief man, put down the crook. Dear dear

Image shows the covers of pts 1 and 2 of the new vol. 1 of The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland

Congratulations to the editors and all who contributed to this long-awaited first vol (2 pts) of the History of the Book in Scotland! Great achievement. Proud to be included on Esther Inglis in pt.2, with her portrait highlighting the cover of pt.1.
#bookhistory @edinburghup.bsky.social

The Atlas of Early Printing has a new URL at the Folger. 📜 #BookHistory
atlas.folger.edu

A page from the book 1984

Brown University is home to George Orwell's original manuscript of 1984. Most of it is marked up heavily in Orwell's hand-writing but this untouched page caught my eye.

2 people consulting a printed volume on a book cushion

📢Job alert! We’re looking for 3 new full-time graduate trainee Archives & Special Collections Assistants to join our innovative, user-focused engagement team.

See more details and apply: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/archives...

🗓️Closing date: 16 April 2026

Fully-funded three-year PhD Scholarship: Living with Print in the Eighteenth Century

Based at @sydney.edu.au (with Nicola Parsons) and @glasgow.ac.uk (with me), working with collections in Australia and Scotland.

Deadline April 21st - please circulate!

www.gla.ac.uk/scholarships...

The wonderful Alexandra Plane was the recipient of the Alasdair Ross Prize 2024. She has produced a blog post about how the funds helped support her archival research into 16th century royal book traders. Read all about it here: scottishhistorysociety.com?p=1323

Librarian at Lincoln Cathedral Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...

Job opportunity with manuscripts and early printed books!

Librarian at Lincoln Cathedral – Cathedral Library
£43,722 - Full time
applicaiton DL: 14 April 2026

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQX901/l...

St. Cuthbert's Day has come round again and I'm very happy to be able to update last year's post with the link to the St. Cuthbert Gospel, which is back online. Catalogue entry here searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-... with link to the digitized MS from there.

⚓ @blmedieval.bsky.social

CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 to the winner of our Digital Prize 2026: Eighteenth-Century Libraries Online (ECLO). The project is the result of a 5yr AHRC-funded project on the role of books in social, cultural & political change across the #18thC Atlantic.
www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/rese...

#skystorians 🗃️

wrote a short blog about one of my favourite images in the book - a figure of 'true' and 'feigned' ginger, and what it might mean for a plant to be false. cambridgeblog.org/2026/03/trea...

Some delights, even. No Dwights were present AFAIK

A geometric pattern in red and black ink (an angel) which is part of a scroll produced in Ethiopia in the 19th century. Writing beneath in Ge’ez. MS Gen 751

Detail of gold decoration from Arabic Qu’ran written in Southern Spain in possibly 13-14th century. Ms Hunter MS Hunter 479 (V.7.6)

Detail of gold decoration from Arabic Qu’ran written in Southern Spain in possibly 13-14th century. Ms Hunter MS Hunter 479 (V.7.6)

Some Dwight’s from today’s class @uofglasgowasc.bsky.social Cross-Cultural Artistic Encounters in the Mediterranean, 1200-1700 HISTART5164 led by Anthi Andronikou. A 19c Ethiopic talisman scroll (an angel) and details from a cracking Andalusian Qur’an.

Brown 18c binding with ‘Joseph Ames’ stamped in blind in the centre

The latter was owned by Joseph Ames and has a rather nice stamped binding

These are MS Gen 751 www.gla.ac.uk/collections/... and MS Hunter 479 (V.7.6) www.gla.ac.uk/collections/... respectively

A geometric pattern in red and black ink (an angel) which is part of a scroll produced in Ethiopia in the 19th century. Writing beneath in Ge’ez. MS Gen 751

Detail of gold decoration from Arabic Qu’ran written in Southern Spain in possibly 13-14th century. Ms Hunter MS Hunter 479 (V.7.6)

Detail of gold decoration from Arabic Qu’ran written in Southern Spain in possibly 13-14th century. Ms Hunter MS Hunter 479 (V.7.6)

Some Dwight’s from today’s class @uofglasgowasc.bsky.social Cross-Cultural Artistic Encounters in the Mediterranean, 1200-1700 HISTART5164 led by Anthi Andronikou. A 19c Ethiopic talisman scroll (an angel) and details from a cracking Andalusian Qur’an.

I Murder Hate Robert Burns I murder hate by flood or field, Tho’ glory’s name may screen us; In wars at home I’ll spend my blood— Life-giving wars of Venus. The deities that I adore Are social Peace and Plenty; I’m better pleas’d to make one more, Than be the death of twenty. I would not die like Socrates, For all the fuss of Plato; Nor would I with Leonidas, Nor yet would I with Cato: The zealots of the Church and State Shall ne’er my mortal foes be; But let me have bold Zimri’s fate, Within the arms of Cozbi!

In 1787, Robert Burns acquired a diamond-tipped pen which he used to inscribe poems on windows & chimney-pieces across Scotland. “I Murder Hate” is Burns’s version of “make love, not war” #graffiti, & was etched into a window at the Globe Tavern, Dumfries
#WyrdWednesday #C18 #poem #poetry

Something nasty on the bookshelf: my review of @tanyakirk.bsky.social's collection of stories about books and libraries for @blpublishing.bsky.social, ‘The Haunted Library’ drfrancisyoung.com/2026/03/04/s... 📚👻

Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution

www.science.org/content/arti...

Calling all #UofG students! There is less than 1 week to apply for the David Murray Book Collecting Prize!

£500 will be awarded to the student with the best collection of books or printed materials 📘📕📙

To find out more and apply, go to www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li....

Detail of an early modern engraving with the corner left unprinted because seemingly a paper slip was between the plate and the paper sheet, as the unprinted area has a rectangular shape.

Page in the book with the entire engraving showing an unprinted area in the right corner below.

Title page of the book. Printed text surrounded by an engraved border reading ‘P. Ovidius Nasonis Metamorphoses.’ The imprint clarifies the book was published by Jan I Moretus.

We all slip. In 1591, so did 1 of Mynken Liefrinck’s workmen quite literally. While printing engravings for this edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses published by Jan I Moretus, a stray paper slip seems to have been left between plate & sheet. Its edge blocked ink, leaving a defined unprinted corner.

Pleasingly meta to find some printed binding waste with a whole page of definitions of the word bind/binding. In a medical work by Leonart Fuchs, printed at Lyons in 1550 & bequeathed to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1591 by Thomas Lorkyn, Regius Professor of Physic. N*.13.49(G).

Introduction to Making Medieval Manuscripts (Practice Based) This course introduces students to the complicated and messy processes of production through which pre-modern manuscripts were created. It offers a mixture of talks and practical sessions that give…

The “messy” course returns to London’s palaeography summer school, 8-12 June. A chance to make your own medieval manuscript. Places are limited so book now (tell your friends)! #medievalsky taught by the amazing @saracharles.bsky.social @stevelawesarts.bsky.social 👇🎨🫟
palaeography.uk/study/short-...

Call for applications!

We are looking for a small press to take up a temporary residency at UCL!

£5,000 to spend flexibly, an opportunity to work with outstanding collections & collaborate with brilliant students and staff!

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

A selection of books form the Fagel Collection

TCD Library is recruiting a Senior Bibliographer to help catalogue the Fagel Collection! This is a fabulous professional opportunity to work on one of Europe's great early modern private libraries. Closing 10 March at noon. Full details available at www.tcd.ie/hr/vacancies